In a meeting held late last week, Union Minister for Education Dr Myo Thein Gyi and other top government and Ministry of Education officials discussed the 2021-2030 National Education Strategic Plan (NESP) – succeeding the previous 5-year plan NESP 2016-2021.

The Union Minister emphasized the necessity to implement the education reforms based on non-discrimination, leaving no one behind, no drop-out and rights to learn principles; the discussions also raised structural issues such as the increase of government budget in education reforms, capacity building for teachers, improving technology and infrastructure.

The discussion on NESP 2021-2030 comes as the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO) released an extensive report on children’s learning and performance in 6 Southeast Asian countries (Cambodia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines and Viet Nam).

The “SEA-Primary Learning Metrics 2019 Main Regional Report” findings are presented in five chapters providing meaningful information to understand the level of resources, practices and learning outcomes in basic education across said countries.

Focused on Grade 5 students, and on 3 learning domains (reading, writing and mathematics), the report also includes a global citizenship questionnaire module as well as extensive information about children, classrooms, schools, teachers, head teachers, parents and communities.

Myanmar performs relatively well compared to its neighbors in structural metrics (school textbook and libraries per student, etc.) but it performs poorly in fundamental learning metrics (writing, reading, maths).